Course: Early Childhood Education"Waldorf Education is not a pedagogical system but an art - the art of awakening what is actually there within the human being." ~ Rudolf Steiner
The Waldorf early childhood educator works with the young child by creating a warm, beautiful and loving home-like environment, which is protective and secure, and where things happen in a predictable, rhythmic manner. Here she responds to the developing child in two basic ways: First, she engages in domestic, practical, and artistic activities the children can readily imitate (for example, baking, painting, gardening, and handicrafts), adapting the work to the changing seasons and festivals of the year. Secondly, the Waldorf kindergarten teacher nurtures the children’s power of imagination by telling carefully selected stories and by encouraging free play. This free or fantasy play, in which children act out scenarios of their own creation, helps them to experience many aspects of life more deeply. When toys are used, they are made of natural materials. Wood, cotton, wool, silk, shells, stones, pine cones and objects from nature that the children themselves have collected are used in play and to beautify the room. Sensory integration, eye-hand coordination, appreciating the beauty of language, sequencing, and other basic skills necessary for the foundation of academic learning are fostered in the kindergarten. In this truly loving, natural and creative environment, children are provided with a range of activities to prepare them for later learning and for life itself. |
Course Outline
Early Childhood Education 1
Lesson 1: You Are Your Child's First Teacher Lesson 2: Home Life as the Basis for All Learning Lesson 3: Birth to Three: Growing Down and Waking Up Lesson 4: Helping Your Baby's Development Lesson 5: Helping Your Toddler's Development Lesson 6: Rhythm in Home Life Lesson 7: Discipline and Other Parenting Issues Lesson 8: Reflection and Final Paper/Early Childhood Education 1 Early Childhood Education 2
Lesson 1: Nourishing Your Child's Imagination and Creative Play Lesson 2: Developing Your Child's Artistic Ability Lesson 3: Encouraging your Child's Musical Ability Lesson 4: Cognitive Development and Early Childhood Education Lesson 5: Common Parenting Question: From Television to Immunizations Lesson 6: Help for the Journey Lesson 7: Reflection and Final Paper/Early Childhood Education 2 
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What Makes Waldorf Early Childhood Education “Waldorf”?
Is there a Waldorf early childhood curriculum? Are there specific activities—puppet plays, circle games, watercolor painting, for example—that are essential to a Waldorf program? Are there certain materials and furnishings—lazured, soft-colored walls, handmade dolls, beeswax crayons, silk and other natural materials—that are necessary ingredients in a Waldorf setting? What makes Waldorf early childhood education “Waldorf”?
Rudolf Steiner spoke on a number of occasions about the experiences that are essential for the healthy development of the young child. These include:
• love and warmth
• an environment that nourishes the senses
• creative and artistic experiences
• meaningful adult activity to be imitated
• free, imaginative play
• protection of the forces of childhood
• gratitude, reverence, and wonder
• joy, humor, and happiness
• adult caregivers pursuing a path of inner development
Love and Warmth
Children who live in an atmosphere of love and warmth, and who have around them truly good examples to imitate, are living in their proper element. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Love and emotional warmth, rather than any particular early childhood program, create the basis for the child’s healthy development. These qualities should live between the adult caregiver and the child, in the children’s behavior toward one another, and among the adults in the early childhood center. When Rudolf Steiner visited the classes of the first Waldorf school, he often asked the children, “Do you love your teacher?” Children are also served if this love and warmth exist in the relationships between the teachers and the parents, between the early childhood teachers and the rest of the school, and in the surrounding community.
An Environment that Nourishes the Senses
The essential task of the kindergarten teacher is to create the proper physical environment around the children. “Physical environment” must be understood in the widest sense imaginable. It includes not just what happens around the children in the material sense, but everything that occurs in their environment, everything that can be perceived by their senses, that can work on the inner powers of the children from the surrounding physical space. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Early learning is profoundly connected to the child’s own physical body and sensory experience. Everything the young child sees, hears, and touches has an effect. Thus a clean, orderly, beautiful, quiet setting is essential. The physical environment, both indoors and outdoors, should provide varied and nourishing opportunities for self-education—experiences in touch, balance, lively and joyful movement, and also inward listening. The children should experience large-group, small-group, and solitary activities. The teacher, in integrating diverse elements into a harmonious and meaningful environment, provides surroundings that are accessible to the child’s understanding, feeling, and active will. The care, love, and intention expressed through the outer materials and furnishings of the classes are experienced unconsciously by the child. The child experiences the immediate environment as ensouled and nurturing. The adult shapes the temporal environment as well as the spatial. Through a rhythmic schedule, in which the same thing happens at the same time on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, the child gains a sense of security and confidence in the world. Also, the different activities of the day should take place in a comfortable flow with smooth transitions.
Creative, Artistic Experience
In order to become true educators, we must be able to see the truly aesthetic element in the work, to bring an artistic quality into our tasks. . . . [I]f we bring this aesthetic element, then we begin to come closer to what the child wills out of its own nature. —Rudolf Steiner, A Modern Art of Education
In the early childhood class, the art of education is the art of living. The teacher is an artist in how she perceives and relates to the children and to the activities of daily life. She orchestrates and choreographs the rhythms of each day, each week, and each season in such a way that the children can breathe freely in a living structure. In addition, the teacher offers the children opportunities for artistic experiences in singing and music, in movement and gesture—through eurythmy and rhythmic games—and in creative speech and language—through verses, poetry, and stories. The children model with beeswax, draw, and do watercolor painting. Puppet and marionette shows put on by the teacher are an important element in the life of the kindergarten.
Meaningful Adult Activity as Examples for the Child’s Imitation
The task of the kindergarten teacher is to adapt the practical activities of daily life so that they are suitable for the child’s imitation through play. . . . The activities of children in kindergarten must be derived directly from life itself rather than being “thought out” by the intellectualized culture of adults. In the kindergarten, the most important thing is to give children the opportunity to directly imitate life itself. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
Children do not learn through instruction or admonition but though imitation. Good sight will develop if the environment has the proper conditions of light and color, while in the brain and blood circulation, the physical foundations will be laid for a healthy sense of morality if children witness moral actions in their surroundings. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Real, meaningful work with a purpose, adjusted to the needs of the child, is in accordance with the child’s natural and inborn need for movement, and is an enormously significant educational activity. The teacher focuses on the meaningful activities that nurture life in the in the classroom “home,” such as cooking and baking, gardening, doing laundry and cleaning, creating and caring for the materials in the immediate environment, and taking care of the bodily needs of the children. This directed attention of the teacher creates an atmosphere of freedom in which the individuality of each child can be active. It is not intended just that the children copy the outer movements and actions of the adult, but that they experience also the inner attitude—the devotion, care, sense of purpose, focus, and creative spirit of the adult.
Free, Imaginative Play
In the child’s play activity, we can only provide the conditions for education. What is gained through play, through everything that cannot be determined by fixed rules, stems fundamentally from the self-activity of the child, The real educational value of play lives in the fact that we ignore our rules and regulations, our educational theory, and allow the child free rein. —Rudolf Steiner, Self Education in the Light of Anthroposophy
In a seemingly contradictory indication, Rudolf Steiner also said: Giving direction and guidance to play is one of the essential tasks of sensible education, which is to say an art of education that is right for humanity. . . . The early childhood educator must school her observation in order to develop an artistic eye, to detect the individual quality of each child’s play. —Rudolf Steiner, Lecture of February 24, 1921 in Utrecht, The Netherlands
Little children learn through play. They approach play in an entirely individual way, out of their entirely individual ways, out of their unique configuration of soul and spirit, and out of their unique experiences of the world in which they live. The manner in which a child plays may offer a picture of how he will take up his destiny as an adult. The task of the teacher is to create an environment that supports the possibility of healthy play. This environment includes the physical surroundings, furnishings, and play materials; the social environment of activities and social interactions; and the inner/spiritual environment of thoughts, intentions, and imaginations held by the adults.
Protection for the Forces of Childhood
Although it is highly necessary that each person should be fully awake in later life, the child must be allowed to remain as long as possible in the peaceful, dreamlike condition of pictorial imagination in which his early years of life are passed. For if we allow his organism to grow strong in this nonintellectual way, he will rightly develop in later life the intellectuality needed in the world today. —Rudolf Steiner, A Modern Art of Education
The lively, waking dream of the little child’s consciousness must be allowed to thrive in the early childhood group. This means that the teacher refrains as much as possible from verbal instruction. Instead, her gestures and actions provide a model for the child’s imitation. Familiar daily rhythms and activities provide a context where the need for verbal instruction is reduced. Simple, archetypal imagery in stories, songs, and games provides experiences that the children can internalize but that do not require intellectual or critical reflection or explanation.
An Atmosphere of Gratitude, Reverence, and Wonder
An atmosphere of gratitude should grow naturally in children through merely witnessing the gratitude the adults feel as they receive what is freely given by others, and in how they express this gratitude. If a child says “thank you” very naturally—not in response to the urging of others, but simply through imitating— something has been done that will greatly benefit the child’s whole life. Out of this an all-embracing gratitude will develop toward the whole world. This cultivation of gratitude is of paramount importance. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
Out of these early, all-pervading experiences of gratitude, the first tender capacity for love, which is deeply embedded in each and every child, begins to sprout in earthly life.
If, during the first period of life, we create an atmosphere of gratitude around the children, then out of this gratitude toward the world, toward the entire universe, and also out of thankfulness for being able to be in this world, a profound and warm sense of devotion will arise . . . upright, honest, and true. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
This is the basis for what will become a capacity for deep, intimate love and commitment in later life, for dedication and loyalty, for true admiration of others, for fervent spiritual or religious devotion, and for placing oneself wholeheartedly in the service of the world.
Joy, Humor, and Happiness
The joy of children in and with their environment must therefore be counted among the forces that build and shape the physical organs. They need teachers who look and act with happiness and, most of all, with honest, unaffected love. Such a love that streams, as it were, with warmth through the physical environment of the children may be said to literally “hatch out” the forms of the physical organs. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
If you make a surly face so that a child gets the impression you are a grumpy person, this harms the child for the rest of his life. What kind of school plan you make is neither here nor there; what matters is what sort of person you are. —Rudolf Steiner The Kingdom of Childhood
The teacher’s earnestness about her work and her serious striving must be balanced with humor and a demeanor that bespeaks happiness. There must be moments of humor and delight in the classroom every day.
Adult Caregivers on a Path of Inner Development
For the small child before the change of teeth, the most important thing in education is the teacher’s own being. —Rudolf Steiner, Essentials of Education
Just think what feelings arise in the soul of the early childhood educator who realizes: What I accomplish with this child, I accomplish for the grown-up person in his twenties. What matters is not so much a knowledge of abstract educational principles or pedagogical rules. . . . [W]hat does matter is that a deep sense of responsibility develops in [the teacher’s heart and mind] and that this affects her or his worldview and the way she or he stands in life. —Rudolf Steiner, Education in the Face of the Present-Day World Situation, Lecture of June 10, 1920
Here we come to the spiritual environment of the early childhood setting: the thoughts, attitudes, and imaginations living in the adult who cares for the children. This invisible realm that lies behind the outer actions of the teacher has a profound influence on the child’s development. The spiritual environment includes recognition of the child as a threefold being—of body, soul, and spirit—on a path of evolutionary development through repeated Earth lives. This recognition provides a foundation for the daily activities in the kindergarten, and for the relationship between adult and child. Such an understanding of the nature and destiny of the human comes out of the inner life of the adult, the life of the individual Ego. This is a realm that is largely hidden, and hence is difficult to observe directly and to evaluate objectively. Yet ultimately this realm may affect the development of the children most profoundly. It is not merely our outer activity that influence the growing child. What lies behind and is expressed through this outer activity also is crucial. Ultimately, the most profound influence on the child is who we are as human beings—and who we are becoming and how.
Conclusion
The “essentials” described here are qualitative in nature. For the most part, they are not part of a body of concrete “best practices.” Instead, they concern inner qualities and attributes of the teacher that foster healthy development in young children. These qualities can come to expression in a wide variety of ways, according to
• the age range of the children in the group and their individual characteristics;
• the nature of the particular program—a kindergarten, playgroup, or extended care program; and
• the environment and surroundings—urban or rural, home or school or child care center.
Many practices that have come to be associated with Waldorf/Steiner early childhood education—certain daily rhythms and rituals, play materials, songs, stories, even the colors of the walls, the dress of the adults, and the menu for snack—may be mistakenly taken as essentials. The results of such assumptions can be surprising, even disturbing—a “King Winter” nature table appearing in a tropical climate in “wintertime,” or dolls with pink skin and yellow hair in a kindergarten where all the children are brown-skinned and black-haired. Such practices may express a tendency toward a doctrinal or dogmatic approach that is out of touch with the realities of the immediate situation and instead imposes something from “outside.” There is a parallel concern at the other end of the spectrum from the doctrinal or dogmatic. The freedom that Waldorf Education offers each individual teacher to determine the practices of her early childhood program can be misinterpreted to mean that “anything goes,” according to personal preference and style. Here too, there is the danger that the developmental realities and needs of the children are not sufficiently taken into consideration. Each of these one-sided approaches may be injurious to the development of the children. As Waldorf early childhood educators, we are constantly seeking a middle, universally human path between polarities. Rudolf Steiner’s advice to the first Waldorf kindergarten teacher, Elizabeth Grunelius, in the early 1920s, can be paraphrased as follows: "Observe the children. Actively meditate. Follow your intuitions. Work so that all your actions are worthy of imitation." Today, those of us who work with young children in a Waldorf environment are challenged to engage in a constant process of renewal. We must actively observe the children in our care, carry them in our meditations, and seek to work consciously and artistically to create the experiences that will serve their development. Our devotion to this task awakens us to the importance of self-education and transformation in the context of community. Our ongoing study of child and human development, our own artistic and meditative practices, and our work with Anthroposophy, independently and together with others, become essential elements for the practice of Waldorf early childhood education. Here we can come to experience that we are not alone on this journey. We are supported through our encounters with one another other and with our sharing of insights, experience, and knowledge. We are helped also by those beings spiritual beings who are committed to our continued development and to the renewal of culture that Waldorf Education seeks to serve.
Rudolf Steiner spoke on a number of occasions about the experiences that are essential for the healthy development of the young child. These include:
• love and warmth
• an environment that nourishes the senses
• creative and artistic experiences
• meaningful adult activity to be imitated
• free, imaginative play
• protection of the forces of childhood
• gratitude, reverence, and wonder
• joy, humor, and happiness
• adult caregivers pursuing a path of inner development
Love and Warmth
Children who live in an atmosphere of love and warmth, and who have around them truly good examples to imitate, are living in their proper element. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Love and emotional warmth, rather than any particular early childhood program, create the basis for the child’s healthy development. These qualities should live between the adult caregiver and the child, in the children’s behavior toward one another, and among the adults in the early childhood center. When Rudolf Steiner visited the classes of the first Waldorf school, he often asked the children, “Do you love your teacher?” Children are also served if this love and warmth exist in the relationships between the teachers and the parents, between the early childhood teachers and the rest of the school, and in the surrounding community.
An Environment that Nourishes the Senses
The essential task of the kindergarten teacher is to create the proper physical environment around the children. “Physical environment” must be understood in the widest sense imaginable. It includes not just what happens around the children in the material sense, but everything that occurs in their environment, everything that can be perceived by their senses, that can work on the inner powers of the children from the surrounding physical space. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Early learning is profoundly connected to the child’s own physical body and sensory experience. Everything the young child sees, hears, and touches has an effect. Thus a clean, orderly, beautiful, quiet setting is essential. The physical environment, both indoors and outdoors, should provide varied and nourishing opportunities for self-education—experiences in touch, balance, lively and joyful movement, and also inward listening. The children should experience large-group, small-group, and solitary activities. The teacher, in integrating diverse elements into a harmonious and meaningful environment, provides surroundings that are accessible to the child’s understanding, feeling, and active will. The care, love, and intention expressed through the outer materials and furnishings of the classes are experienced unconsciously by the child. The child experiences the immediate environment as ensouled and nurturing. The adult shapes the temporal environment as well as the spatial. Through a rhythmic schedule, in which the same thing happens at the same time on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, the child gains a sense of security and confidence in the world. Also, the different activities of the day should take place in a comfortable flow with smooth transitions.
Creative, Artistic Experience
In order to become true educators, we must be able to see the truly aesthetic element in the work, to bring an artistic quality into our tasks. . . . [I]f we bring this aesthetic element, then we begin to come closer to what the child wills out of its own nature. —Rudolf Steiner, A Modern Art of Education
In the early childhood class, the art of education is the art of living. The teacher is an artist in how she perceives and relates to the children and to the activities of daily life. She orchestrates and choreographs the rhythms of each day, each week, and each season in such a way that the children can breathe freely in a living structure. In addition, the teacher offers the children opportunities for artistic experiences in singing and music, in movement and gesture—through eurythmy and rhythmic games—and in creative speech and language—through verses, poetry, and stories. The children model with beeswax, draw, and do watercolor painting. Puppet and marionette shows put on by the teacher are an important element in the life of the kindergarten.
Meaningful Adult Activity as Examples for the Child’s Imitation
The task of the kindergarten teacher is to adapt the practical activities of daily life so that they are suitable for the child’s imitation through play. . . . The activities of children in kindergarten must be derived directly from life itself rather than being “thought out” by the intellectualized culture of adults. In the kindergarten, the most important thing is to give children the opportunity to directly imitate life itself. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
Children do not learn through instruction or admonition but though imitation. Good sight will develop if the environment has the proper conditions of light and color, while in the brain and blood circulation, the physical foundations will be laid for a healthy sense of morality if children witness moral actions in their surroundings. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Real, meaningful work with a purpose, adjusted to the needs of the child, is in accordance with the child’s natural and inborn need for movement, and is an enormously significant educational activity. The teacher focuses on the meaningful activities that nurture life in the in the classroom “home,” such as cooking and baking, gardening, doing laundry and cleaning, creating and caring for the materials in the immediate environment, and taking care of the bodily needs of the children. This directed attention of the teacher creates an atmosphere of freedom in which the individuality of each child can be active. It is not intended just that the children copy the outer movements and actions of the adult, but that they experience also the inner attitude—the devotion, care, sense of purpose, focus, and creative spirit of the adult.
Free, Imaginative Play
In the child’s play activity, we can only provide the conditions for education. What is gained through play, through everything that cannot be determined by fixed rules, stems fundamentally from the self-activity of the child, The real educational value of play lives in the fact that we ignore our rules and regulations, our educational theory, and allow the child free rein. —Rudolf Steiner, Self Education in the Light of Anthroposophy
In a seemingly contradictory indication, Rudolf Steiner also said: Giving direction and guidance to play is one of the essential tasks of sensible education, which is to say an art of education that is right for humanity. . . . The early childhood educator must school her observation in order to develop an artistic eye, to detect the individual quality of each child’s play. —Rudolf Steiner, Lecture of February 24, 1921 in Utrecht, The Netherlands
Little children learn through play. They approach play in an entirely individual way, out of their entirely individual ways, out of their unique configuration of soul and spirit, and out of their unique experiences of the world in which they live. The manner in which a child plays may offer a picture of how he will take up his destiny as an adult. The task of the teacher is to create an environment that supports the possibility of healthy play. This environment includes the physical surroundings, furnishings, and play materials; the social environment of activities and social interactions; and the inner/spiritual environment of thoughts, intentions, and imaginations held by the adults.
Protection for the Forces of Childhood
Although it is highly necessary that each person should be fully awake in later life, the child must be allowed to remain as long as possible in the peaceful, dreamlike condition of pictorial imagination in which his early years of life are passed. For if we allow his organism to grow strong in this nonintellectual way, he will rightly develop in later life the intellectuality needed in the world today. —Rudolf Steiner, A Modern Art of Education
The lively, waking dream of the little child’s consciousness must be allowed to thrive in the early childhood group. This means that the teacher refrains as much as possible from verbal instruction. Instead, her gestures and actions provide a model for the child’s imitation. Familiar daily rhythms and activities provide a context where the need for verbal instruction is reduced. Simple, archetypal imagery in stories, songs, and games provides experiences that the children can internalize but that do not require intellectual or critical reflection or explanation.
An Atmosphere of Gratitude, Reverence, and Wonder
An atmosphere of gratitude should grow naturally in children through merely witnessing the gratitude the adults feel as they receive what is freely given by others, and in how they express this gratitude. If a child says “thank you” very naturally—not in response to the urging of others, but simply through imitating— something has been done that will greatly benefit the child’s whole life. Out of this an all-embracing gratitude will develop toward the whole world. This cultivation of gratitude is of paramount importance. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
Out of these early, all-pervading experiences of gratitude, the first tender capacity for love, which is deeply embedded in each and every child, begins to sprout in earthly life.
If, during the first period of life, we create an atmosphere of gratitude around the children, then out of this gratitude toward the world, toward the entire universe, and also out of thankfulness for being able to be in this world, a profound and warm sense of devotion will arise . . . upright, honest, and true. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
This is the basis for what will become a capacity for deep, intimate love and commitment in later life, for dedication and loyalty, for true admiration of others, for fervent spiritual or religious devotion, and for placing oneself wholeheartedly in the service of the world.
Joy, Humor, and Happiness
The joy of children in and with their environment must therefore be counted among the forces that build and shape the physical organs. They need teachers who look and act with happiness and, most of all, with honest, unaffected love. Such a love that streams, as it were, with warmth through the physical environment of the children may be said to literally “hatch out” the forms of the physical organs. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
If you make a surly face so that a child gets the impression you are a grumpy person, this harms the child for the rest of his life. What kind of school plan you make is neither here nor there; what matters is what sort of person you are. —Rudolf Steiner The Kingdom of Childhood
The teacher’s earnestness about her work and her serious striving must be balanced with humor and a demeanor that bespeaks happiness. There must be moments of humor and delight in the classroom every day.
Adult Caregivers on a Path of Inner Development
For the small child before the change of teeth, the most important thing in education is the teacher’s own being. —Rudolf Steiner, Essentials of Education
Just think what feelings arise in the soul of the early childhood educator who realizes: What I accomplish with this child, I accomplish for the grown-up person in his twenties. What matters is not so much a knowledge of abstract educational principles or pedagogical rules. . . . [W]hat does matter is that a deep sense of responsibility develops in [the teacher’s heart and mind] and that this affects her or his worldview and the way she or he stands in life. —Rudolf Steiner, Education in the Face of the Present-Day World Situation, Lecture of June 10, 1920
Here we come to the spiritual environment of the early childhood setting: the thoughts, attitudes, and imaginations living in the adult who cares for the children. This invisible realm that lies behind the outer actions of the teacher has a profound influence on the child’s development. The spiritual environment includes recognition of the child as a threefold being—of body, soul, and spirit—on a path of evolutionary development through repeated Earth lives. This recognition provides a foundation for the daily activities in the kindergarten, and for the relationship between adult and child. Such an understanding of the nature and destiny of the human comes out of the inner life of the adult, the life of the individual Ego. This is a realm that is largely hidden, and hence is difficult to observe directly and to evaluate objectively. Yet ultimately this realm may affect the development of the children most profoundly. It is not merely our outer activity that influence the growing child. What lies behind and is expressed through this outer activity also is crucial. Ultimately, the most profound influence on the child is who we are as human beings—and who we are becoming and how.
Conclusion
The “essentials” described here are qualitative in nature. For the most part, they are not part of a body of concrete “best practices.” Instead, they concern inner qualities and attributes of the teacher that foster healthy development in young children. These qualities can come to expression in a wide variety of ways, according to
• the age range of the children in the group and their individual characteristics;
• the nature of the particular program—a kindergarten, playgroup, or extended care program; and
• the environment and surroundings—urban or rural, home or school or child care center.
Many practices that have come to be associated with Waldorf/Steiner early childhood education—certain daily rhythms and rituals, play materials, songs, stories, even the colors of the walls, the dress of the adults, and the menu for snack—may be mistakenly taken as essentials. The results of such assumptions can be surprising, even disturbing—a “King Winter” nature table appearing in a tropical climate in “wintertime,” or dolls with pink skin and yellow hair in a kindergarten where all the children are brown-skinned and black-haired. Such practices may express a tendency toward a doctrinal or dogmatic approach that is out of touch with the realities of the immediate situation and instead imposes something from “outside.” There is a parallel concern at the other end of the spectrum from the doctrinal or dogmatic. The freedom that Waldorf Education offers each individual teacher to determine the practices of her early childhood program can be misinterpreted to mean that “anything goes,” according to personal preference and style. Here too, there is the danger that the developmental realities and needs of the children are not sufficiently taken into consideration. Each of these one-sided approaches may be injurious to the development of the children. As Waldorf early childhood educators, we are constantly seeking a middle, universally human path between polarities. Rudolf Steiner’s advice to the first Waldorf kindergarten teacher, Elizabeth Grunelius, in the early 1920s, can be paraphrased as follows: "Observe the children. Actively meditate. Follow your intuitions. Work so that all your actions are worthy of imitation." Today, those of us who work with young children in a Waldorf environment are challenged to engage in a constant process of renewal. We must actively observe the children in our care, carry them in our meditations, and seek to work consciously and artistically to create the experiences that will serve their development. Our devotion to this task awakens us to the importance of self-education and transformation in the context of community. Our ongoing study of child and human development, our own artistic and meditative practices, and our work with Anthroposophy, independently and together with others, become essential elements for the practice of Waldorf early childhood education. Here we can come to experience that we are not alone on this journey. We are supported through our encounters with one another other and with our sharing of insights, experience, and knowledge. We are helped also by those beings spiritual beings who are committed to our continued development and to the renewal of culture that Waldorf Education seeks to serve.
Early Childhood Education 2 - Lesson 3
Tasks and Assignments for Early Childhood Education 2 - Lesson 3
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Please study the study material/chapters indicated below. Feel free to use additional resources as wanted and needed. Once you feel you are sufficiently acquainted with the subject please complete the following:
1. Give examples and describe in detail how to set up and conduct musical and fingerplay activity in the preschool/kindergarten setting. 2. Create a fictive dialogue between a Waldorf preschool/kindergarten teacher and a parent. The dialogue should explain to the parent the ideas and concepts of Pentatonic music and the "Mood of the Fifth". Submit the completed assignment via the submission form or via email. 
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Study Material for Early Childhood Education 2 - Lesson 3
You Are Your Child's First TeacherCΗΑΡΤΕR 10 - Encouraging Your Child's Musical Ability
Make a Joyful Noise
Music and Cognitive Development Singing with Your Child Movement Games and Fingerplays Pentatonic Music and the "Mood of the Fifth" What about Music and Dance Lessons? Recommended Resources |
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MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE
Children love sounds. They love to make them—with their own voices, by banging a spoon on a cooking pot, by blowing into a wooden flute. And they love to hear sounds, because sounds give them exciting information about the inner structure of an object. They unconsciously absorb the sound that manifests the nature of the object when it is touched, knocked, or dropped. The baby with a rattle is expressing her nature to be in movement, but she is also listening to the sounds her movements produce that stop when she stops moving.
Movement is interwoven with sound for the young child. Neurologists have found that a child who is unable to make certain movements is unable to make certain sounds. The young child is naturally in movement. The child's movement often remains free-flowing prior to school age if she has not been repressed by the environment. The movement forms itself into long and short rhythms, but it doesn't manifest what we call a beat (a regular emphasis every so many counts) until the child turns nine. Around the age of nine the child enters a new relationship with the world and is able to feel and understand triads and scales. (1)
Speaking of the inner musical nature of the young child, Rudolf Steiner states, "We shall then notice that it is [the human beings] nature, up to a point, to be born a 'musician.' . . . It is a fact that the individual is born into the world with the desire to bring his own body into a musical rhythm, into a musical relationship with the world, and this inner musical capacity is most active in children in their third and fourth year." (2)
MUSIC AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Seeing to your child's musical and movement activities in the preschool years might or might not make him a great musician later in life (that depends on musical talent and destiny), but it can lay the foundation for healthy development, which has ramifications in all spheres of life. Parents today are being bombarded with reports of the so-called "Mozart effect," a phenomenon that has gotten so out of hand that new parents are being sent home from many hospitals with a CD of classical music to play for their babies in order to make them smarter. All this is courtesy of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science Foundation and the maker of Enfamil baby formula and is paid for by the state legislatures in Georgia and Tennessee. Florida even mandated that state-run day care facilities play such music every day. But what did the studies behind this trend really show?
The "Mozart effect" describes the results of a 1993 study in which college students who listened to ten minutes of Mozart's Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos scored eight or nine points higher on a spatial-temporal reasoning test than they did after experiencing ten minutes of silence or listening to relaxation tapes. Spatial-temporal reasoning is a key to the higher brain function required in mathematics, physics, and engineering. (It should be noted, however, that the increased ability was lost after one hour, and studies by other researchers have been unable to duplicate the results.)
The Mozart experiment actually began in 1990, when these same researchers discovered that the brain in a sense makes its own music. They made computer-generated models of neural firing patterns (electrical brain activity). When the research team fed these various brain patterns through a synthesizer, they heard recognizable but different styles of music. "Some sounded like Baroque music, some like Eastern music, others like folk music. In other words, the communicating neurons (nerve cells) 'play' music." (3)
This made the researchers question whether music itself might encourage those neurons to communicate, so they devised a study with preschoolers to see how musical training might affect their brain development. In their study, 111 three- and four-year-olds were randomly divided into four groups. One group received daily singing lessons and two 15-minute private piano lessons per week at school. A piano also was made available if the children wished to practice on their own. A second group received only the group singing lessons. Members of the third group received two 15-minute private computer lessons each week, while those in the fourth group received no lessons at all. At the beginning of the study, all of the students scored at the national norm on the tests. At the end of six months, however, those who received piano lessons scored an average of 34 percent higher on the tests of spatial-temporal ability, while those in the other three groups showed no improvement on any of the tests. The study was unable to follow the children to see whether the effect was lasting, but other studies with classically trained musicians have shown permanent physical changes in the brain compared to people who have not had extensive musical training.
Although this study showed that giving preschoolers piano lessons significantly increased their ability to perform the types of reasoning required for excellence in science and math, as a Waldorf educator, I would want to make sure that any music lessons are developmentally appropriate and presented in a way that use the appropriate part of the brain and not a lower part, as when babies are taught to "read" by memorizing flash cards. Given the dreamy state of consciousness of the young child, piano lessons would need to involve a lot of fun, not reading music or the pressure to perform. Still, this study might demonstrate to parents that if they're debating between investing in a computer (or sending an older child to computer camp) and buying an instrument and paying for music lessons, an active involvement with music could be more valuable in terms of brain development.
Musical development, mathematics, and spatial reasoning all result in similar brain activity. Both music and mathematics activate parts of the brain in or near the cortex, and there is a definitive relationship between mathematics and musical skills. The crucial window of development, as with language, is from birth to about the age of ten. So what should parents do to ensure optimal enjoyment of music as well as optimal brain development, in a way that is still developmentally appropriate for their child?
SINGING WITH YOUR CHILD
One of the simplest and best musical things you can do with your child is to sing. This can begin before birth and continue through lullabies and special songs that you make up for your baby. After you sing or say a nursery rhyme to your baby, listen and see whether she responds. Katherine Barr Norling, director of a parent-child resource center and school in Boston, writes, "I love singing, even to an 8-month-old, then stopping. Often, even such a young baby will respond by babbling back. One way to experience sound is to talk to your child. But don't stop there. Take that break and listen; allow him to answer in some way. There is so much children can learn even prior to speaking." (4)
Once your child becomes verbal, she will love to sing with you, the more so if you add gestures and movements to match the words. Singing involves the breath and the middle heart/lung sphere, whose development is emphasized between the ages of three and five. Its proper development forms the basis for later health and balanced overall development. Rudolf Steiner said, "You will be fostering all this if you give the child plenty of singing. You must have a feeling that the child is a musical instrument while he is singing Every child is a musical instrument and inwardly feels a kind of well-being in the sound." (5)
Julius Knierim, a music specialist working from the indications of Rudolf Steiner, observed that when they are by themselves, children younger than nine mostly sing at a much higher pitch than the music they have heard in their environment. They will also sing faster than an adult's rhythmic sense would dictate. Much of their singing is not yet rhythmically "correct" because their pulse-to-breathing ratio has not yet settled at the 4:1 ratio of adults and their voices are still light, nonresonant, hovering, and silvery. Children lack the complexity of adult experience and feel completely satisfied and fulfilled with simple melodies, whereas an adult would feel something was lacking and might long for more complicated harmonies and rhythms. (6)
It is difficult to simplify music enough for young children. Even a song with one note can be completely satisfying to them. Here is one song that I made up while looking out the window. It can be accompanied by hand movements that suggest the falling rain and by forming a circle with the arms to represent a puddle.
Children love sounds. They love to make them—with their own voices, by banging a spoon on a cooking pot, by blowing into a wooden flute. And they love to hear sounds, because sounds give them exciting information about the inner structure of an object. They unconsciously absorb the sound that manifests the nature of the object when it is touched, knocked, or dropped. The baby with a rattle is expressing her nature to be in movement, but she is also listening to the sounds her movements produce that stop when she stops moving.
Movement is interwoven with sound for the young child. Neurologists have found that a child who is unable to make certain movements is unable to make certain sounds. The young child is naturally in movement. The child's movement often remains free-flowing prior to school age if she has not been repressed by the environment. The movement forms itself into long and short rhythms, but it doesn't manifest what we call a beat (a regular emphasis every so many counts) until the child turns nine. Around the age of nine the child enters a new relationship with the world and is able to feel and understand triads and scales. (1)
Speaking of the inner musical nature of the young child, Rudolf Steiner states, "We shall then notice that it is [the human beings] nature, up to a point, to be born a 'musician.' . . . It is a fact that the individual is born into the world with the desire to bring his own body into a musical rhythm, into a musical relationship with the world, and this inner musical capacity is most active in children in their third and fourth year." (2)
MUSIC AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Seeing to your child's musical and movement activities in the preschool years might or might not make him a great musician later in life (that depends on musical talent and destiny), but it can lay the foundation for healthy development, which has ramifications in all spheres of life. Parents today are being bombarded with reports of the so-called "Mozart effect," a phenomenon that has gotten so out of hand that new parents are being sent home from many hospitals with a CD of classical music to play for their babies in order to make them smarter. All this is courtesy of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science Foundation and the maker of Enfamil baby formula and is paid for by the state legislatures in Georgia and Tennessee. Florida even mandated that state-run day care facilities play such music every day. But what did the studies behind this trend really show?
The "Mozart effect" describes the results of a 1993 study in which college students who listened to ten minutes of Mozart's Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos scored eight or nine points higher on a spatial-temporal reasoning test than they did after experiencing ten minutes of silence or listening to relaxation tapes. Spatial-temporal reasoning is a key to the higher brain function required in mathematics, physics, and engineering. (It should be noted, however, that the increased ability was lost after one hour, and studies by other researchers have been unable to duplicate the results.)
The Mozart experiment actually began in 1990, when these same researchers discovered that the brain in a sense makes its own music. They made computer-generated models of neural firing patterns (electrical brain activity). When the research team fed these various brain patterns through a synthesizer, they heard recognizable but different styles of music. "Some sounded like Baroque music, some like Eastern music, others like folk music. In other words, the communicating neurons (nerve cells) 'play' music." (3)
This made the researchers question whether music itself might encourage those neurons to communicate, so they devised a study with preschoolers to see how musical training might affect their brain development. In their study, 111 three- and four-year-olds were randomly divided into four groups. One group received daily singing lessons and two 15-minute private piano lessons per week at school. A piano also was made available if the children wished to practice on their own. A second group received only the group singing lessons. Members of the third group received two 15-minute private computer lessons each week, while those in the fourth group received no lessons at all. At the beginning of the study, all of the students scored at the national norm on the tests. At the end of six months, however, those who received piano lessons scored an average of 34 percent higher on the tests of spatial-temporal ability, while those in the other three groups showed no improvement on any of the tests. The study was unable to follow the children to see whether the effect was lasting, but other studies with classically trained musicians have shown permanent physical changes in the brain compared to people who have not had extensive musical training.
Although this study showed that giving preschoolers piano lessons significantly increased their ability to perform the types of reasoning required for excellence in science and math, as a Waldorf educator, I would want to make sure that any music lessons are developmentally appropriate and presented in a way that use the appropriate part of the brain and not a lower part, as when babies are taught to "read" by memorizing flash cards. Given the dreamy state of consciousness of the young child, piano lessons would need to involve a lot of fun, not reading music or the pressure to perform. Still, this study might demonstrate to parents that if they're debating between investing in a computer (or sending an older child to computer camp) and buying an instrument and paying for music lessons, an active involvement with music could be more valuable in terms of brain development.
Musical development, mathematics, and spatial reasoning all result in similar brain activity. Both music and mathematics activate parts of the brain in or near the cortex, and there is a definitive relationship between mathematics and musical skills. The crucial window of development, as with language, is from birth to about the age of ten. So what should parents do to ensure optimal enjoyment of music as well as optimal brain development, in a way that is still developmentally appropriate for their child?
SINGING WITH YOUR CHILD
One of the simplest and best musical things you can do with your child is to sing. This can begin before birth and continue through lullabies and special songs that you make up for your baby. After you sing or say a nursery rhyme to your baby, listen and see whether she responds. Katherine Barr Norling, director of a parent-child resource center and school in Boston, writes, "I love singing, even to an 8-month-old, then stopping. Often, even such a young baby will respond by babbling back. One way to experience sound is to talk to your child. But don't stop there. Take that break and listen; allow him to answer in some way. There is so much children can learn even prior to speaking." (4)
Once your child becomes verbal, she will love to sing with you, the more so if you add gestures and movements to match the words. Singing involves the breath and the middle heart/lung sphere, whose development is emphasized between the ages of three and five. Its proper development forms the basis for later health and balanced overall development. Rudolf Steiner said, "You will be fostering all this if you give the child plenty of singing. You must have a feeling that the child is a musical instrument while he is singing Every child is a musical instrument and inwardly feels a kind of well-being in the sound." (5)
Julius Knierim, a music specialist working from the indications of Rudolf Steiner, observed that when they are by themselves, children younger than nine mostly sing at a much higher pitch than the music they have heard in their environment. They will also sing faster than an adult's rhythmic sense would dictate. Much of their singing is not yet rhythmically "correct" because their pulse-to-breathing ratio has not yet settled at the 4:1 ratio of adults and their voices are still light, nonresonant, hovering, and silvery. Children lack the complexity of adult experience and feel completely satisfied and fulfilled with simple melodies, whereas an adult would feel something was lacking and might long for more complicated harmonies and rhythms. (6)
It is difficult to simplify music enough for young children. Even a song with one note can be completely satisfying to them. Here is one song that I made up while looking out the window. It can be accompanied by hand movements that suggest the falling rain and by forming a circle with the arms to represent a puddle.
When in doubt when choosing the pitch for your song, choose A above middle C. According to Steiner, the qualities of this note are associated with the sun and are especially suitable for early childhood. Here's a song that goes up and down from the A.
If you take off running and flying, your child will delightedly do it with you.
You can also make up songs to go with activities around the house, such as stirring or sewing. Songs can also ease transitions such as cleaning up the toys or going upstairs to nap. Waldorf teacher Mary Lynn Channer shares this transition song for nap time:
You can also make up songs to go with activities around the house, such as stirring or sewing. Songs can also ease transitions such as cleaning up the toys or going upstairs to nap. Waldorf teacher Mary Lynn Channer shares this transition song for nap time:
When you are telling fairy tales, remember how simply key phrases can become a song, like the following from the fairy tale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
Many favorite folk songs and holiday songs that are part of our culture become old friends for your child when they come around each year with the cycle of the seasons. Some traditional songs contain the same kind of folk wisdom we find in nursery rhymes. For example, "Rock-a-bye Baby," according to Eileen Hutchins, "tells of the child cradled in the mother's womb and surrounded by the world of spirit (for spirit literally means breath or wind). But the time of birth draws near and child and cradle (or caul) are cast out into the world." (7)
Singing with your child is one of the joys of parenting. If you can't remember songs from your own childhood, several excellent anthologies (with CDs to help you learn, not to play for your child!) are listed at the end of this chapter.
MOVEMENT GAMES AND FINGERPLAYS
As an adult who hadn't moved much for a few decades, I found that putting movements to songs and verses wasn't my strong suit as a new teacher. I could remember "I'm a Little Teapot" from when I was three years old, but that was about all. But I decided to continue to ponder the movements that express the essential nature of various activities. Gradually the children taught me, and I began to understand more and more. Now I can do movements appropriate for preschoolers to any song or verse, but I certainly felt awkward and self-conscious when I started! Seeing how imitative young children are and how much it is part of their nature to move along with the words helped me rediscover this childlike part of myself.
Start with fingerplays and movement verses from your own childhood. Perhaps you remember "The Wheels on the Bus" or "Six Little Ducks" or "Where Is Thumbkin?" The interaction with your child, her imitation of your movement, and the musical elements all unite in this kind of play that has delighted children for centuries and has great value for their development. Steiner points out how fingerplays and other tasks that develop dexterity in the fingers, such as knitting, help with brain development and later facility in clear thought. (8)
Circle games are also an ancient part of early childhood that delight young children. Modern ones like "Motorboat, motorboat, go so slow . . . Motorboat, motorboat, go so fast . . . Motorboat, motorboat, step on the gas!" are fun for their quality of changing speed and movement, but they lack the musical element. Older circle games such as "Ring Around the Roses" and "Sally Go 'Round the Sun" provide a picture in movement and song of the child's incarnating process. Jane Winslow Eliot, in her book on circle games, writes:
Watch when a child falls on the ground. The shrieks are out of proportion to the damage done. It is because the little one has been shocked out of an enveloping cloud into a sudden realization of the solidity of earth. The soul resents this. When you ritualize this happening in the garment of a game such as the lovely Ring Around the Roses, you lead the child lovingly, gently down to earth and she begins to enjoy the fun of it. Bit by bit the children don't mind staying. (9)
Ring games are joyful, sociable, and simple, yet they have all of the solemnity of a ritual in the way they are repeated over and over. Circle games contain rhythms that affect the beat of the children's pulses. They sometimes incorporate the ability to do tasks without self-consciousness, as in washing the clothes or brushing one's hair in "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush," while others deal with the interplay between the individual and the group, as in "The Farmer in the Dell" (a game that can be too intense for three-year-olds, who don't yet like being singled out and standing alone at the end). A child who does not want to be chosen should never be forced, for games that single out individual characters are too self-conscious for the very young child. The five-year-old, on the other hand, loves to be the farmer or the cheese and to be caught in the games "London Bridge" or "Oranges and Lemons." Younger children will enjoy these games if they can participate as part of the circle without being singled out before they are ready.
Steiner comments about the value of rhythmical games for young children:
For early childhood it is important to realize the value of children's songs as a means of education. They must make a pretty and rhythmical impression on the senses; the beauty of sound is to be valued more than the meaning of words. The more vivid the impression made on the ear, the better. Dancing movements in musical rhythm have a powerful influence in building up the physical organs and this should likewise not be undervalued. (10)
PENTATONIC MUSIC AND THE MOOD OF THE FIFTH"
The pentatonic scale has five notes in an octave instead of the seven we are used to in our normal diatonic scales. For example, a pentatonic scale built around A would have the notes D, E, G, A, and B, with no half steps (so the notes C and F are not included). If you look closely at children's songs and folk songs, you will see that many are written using this simpler scale.
Pentatonic music has the characteristic that it can go on and on without having an ending note that gives it a feeling of being finished (provided the song doesn't end on D, which changes the key from D pentatonic to G major). According to Steiner, these types of songs that are not grounded by a resolving note at the end are especially appropriate for the young child, who is not yet "firmly on the ground." Such music encourages the young child to stay in a dreamy state, so the greatest amount of energy is available for the healthy forming of the physical body. If this is done in early childhood, then the child's intellectual capacities will later wake up while he still maintains a strong contact with wonder, beauty, and creativity. In the Waldorf schools, pentatonic songs are used until the third grade, when the children have developed an inner emotional life that makes the major and minor scales more suitable for them.
The pentatonic scale was once used by most of humanity. The ancient Greeks used a pentatonic scale, and it was used in Europe until the Middle Ages. The Chinese scale is pentatonic, as was the ancient Egyptian. The quality of consciousness of ancient cultures was close to that of the young child—less earthbound, still on the threshold between two worlds. Pentatonic music and music in the "mood of the fifth" can have a healing influence on the young child by not rushing the child into fully incarnated earthbound consciousness and experience. (11)
A kinderharp (children's harp or lyre) is a small handheld harp that can be tuned to the pentatonic scale, which enables anyone to play beautiful music on it; all the notes sound harmonious together, and the quality of the sound is ideal for the young child. Such instruments, without sounding boxes, give a very pure experience of each note, without harmonic overtones. This simple, pure experience of the tones is ideal for young children and is recommended by Steiner over more complex instruments like the piano.
Kinderharps are lovely instruments for nap time and bedtime. Their music is very angelic and can really help calm a child and lull him or her to sleep. As children get older, they also like to pick out tunes on the kinderharp. Such instruments are used in Waldorf early childhood programs for the children to play (very carefully) and for the teacher to play at circle time, or at nap time in afternoon programs.
Kinderharps vary greatly in price and can be purchased from the companies listed at the end of this chapter. In addition, Choroi makes other pentatonic instruments such as a recorder (flute) made out of pear wood, and a klangspiel (xylophone or glockenspiel). Percussion instruments are not generally recommended for young children because a beat that is too strong can drive children too deeply into their physical bodies. This is in opposition to the fluid molding of their inner organs that occurs during the first seven years. Rock music has an especially strong beat and should be avoided for the young child.
I hope I've built a fairly convincing case for the benefits of simple, live music for the young child. We must remind ourselves again and again that the young child is all sense organ and monitor our children's environment for the quality of the sounds that surround and permeate them. In our culture not only do we also tend to be oblivious to the real nature of the young child, but unfortunately we also often substitute nonliving or mechanistic actions for living interactions. Thus instead of letting our babies sleep where they can sense our presence, we put on a recording of a heartbeat. Instead of holding and rocking them to sleep, we are told to turn on a machine that simulates a car going fifty-five miles per hour or to use the noise of a clothes dryer. Instead of reading to them and then letting them lie quietly until they fall asleep, we pop a CD of a professional reading a story into the CD player and beat a hasty retreat. Or instead of singing with our children and letting them help with what we are doing or play quietly near us while we work, we put on one of their DVDs to make them become passive and free us from them. Even though you may think that someone else singing children's songs is doing a much better job than you could possibly do and is providing a better experience, your child would not agree. Your child would always vote for you, because it is the "aliveness" that provides the real nourishment.
WHAT ABOUT MUSIC AND DANCE LESSONS?
Young children are naturally musical. Steiner describes it this way:
The musical element which lives in the human being from birth onwards and which expresses itself particularly in the child's third and fourth years in a gift for dancing is essentially an element of will, potent with life If people had the right agility, they would dance with little children, they would somehow join in the movement of all children. It is a fact that the individual is born into the world with the desire to bring his own body into musical rhythm, into musical relation with the world, and this inner musical capacity is most active in children in their third and fourth years. (12)
Is it, therefore, a good idea to start music and dance lessons at a young age? Unfortunately, most teachers of young children don't understand the principles of imitation and the importance of play and fantasy. They teach cognitively and put pressure on the child to learn a lesson or to do it right. Such a direct approach is far too self-conscious and can be stressful for the young child. While children need play that incorporates dance and music, most lessons are designed for older children, even though they may indicate that they are for four- or five-year-olds.
Elkind, in Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk, develops a strong case that any type of lessons places preschoolers at risk with no real gain. Waldorf teachers would agree that most lessons are inappropriate for the young child. If you do consider any kind of lessons for your nursery or kindergarten-age child—swimming, gymnastics, modern dance, or sports, for example—be sure to observe the classes before you decide whether or not to enroll your child. Does the instructor teach through imitation? Are the things that are asked and done clothed in fantasy? Or is the instruction appropriate for a much older child? Does your child really feel comfortable being away from you? Would the classes be enjoyable or stressful for your child? Would classes be taking away time from play or just being at home (especially important for children who are already in preschool programs or child care)? Don't sacrifice the current stage of your child's development for some future achievement. If it isn't fun, it is better left undone at this age!
Steiner made two recommendations that aren't going to win him any points with parents today. He recommended that children avoid ballet and soccer. In ballet the fixed and artificial positions are foreign to the fluid and changing nature of the growing child. Ballet also affects the vital energy involved in growth and reproduction, as evidenced by the high rate of menstrual irregularities in professional ballerinas. The discipline and fixed positions of ballet are very different from the rhythmical movement that Steiner recommends when dancing with children.
In soccer the exclusive use of the feet and the head in hitting the ball puts undue emphasis on the extremities at a time when the grade-school child is centered in the middle sphere, the heart/lung area. Studies of the long-term effects of playing soccer following the work of neurologist Barry Jordan also found that Dutch professional soccer forwards and defensive players (those most likely to "head" the ball) were more likely to have subtle problems in everything from memory to visual perception than were midfielders and goalies. They had more concussions as well. Jordan also found that professional boxers who carried a specific gene linked to early onset Alzheimer's disease were more likely to suffer cognitive impairment than non-boxers, and he is also checking to see whether the same is true with soccer players. (13) Although your child won't experience the same kind of battering that professional soccer players endure, one can't totally discount Steiner's observation that such use of the head is not healthy for the growing child.
Returning from the soccer fields to the realm of music, unless your child is a musical genius who clearly needs a tutor at age three, there are many reasons to wait until elementary school before beginning music instruction. Unfortunately, most people who work with preschool children don't know how to teach from imitation and start by teaching how to read music. Even the idea of having to learn a lesson through imitation is too direct an approach for a young child. While the Suzuki method does work through the principle of imitation, the emphasis on recorded music is not consonant with the young child's need to hear live music and simple tunes. Performing at young ages, an integral part of Suzuki, introduces pressure and self-consciousness into the dreamlike world of early childhood. In the Waldorf schools children don't present anything before an audience until they are in the grades, when the classes share their poems, plays, songs, and recorder music as a class group with other students and with the parents at school assemblies.
Playing the wooden recorder is begun in the first grade in Waldorf schools, but the children learn strictly through imitating their teacher. Reading music isn't introduced until the third grade, when the child has reached a certain level of maturity and eye-hand coordination and is ready for the full range of musical experience, including the introduction of stringed instruments.
All parents want their children to develop according to their full potential, but an understanding of the inner development of the child leads to the realization that certain subjects and skills are best introduced at the age that corresponds to the child's inner ripeness for them. The desire to "do more sooner," which is a symptom of our spiritual materialism, can lead to skipping steps and hastening a child's development in one sphere without realizing the possible ramifications in another. These comments are not meant to provide a list of "Thou shalt not's," but rather are intended to encourage you to trust your own knowledge and your own heart to intuit what is best for your child. If parents do this, they won't subject their children to the "super baby syndrome" at the expense of the important years of early childhood.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Fingerplays, Nursery Rhymes, and Circle Games
Waldorf-Inspired Song Books
Other Selections
Pentatonic Instruments (Kinderharps and Recorders)
NOTES
Bibliography - You Are Your Child's First Teacher
Singing with your child is one of the joys of parenting. If you can't remember songs from your own childhood, several excellent anthologies (with CDs to help you learn, not to play for your child!) are listed at the end of this chapter.
MOVEMENT GAMES AND FINGERPLAYS
As an adult who hadn't moved much for a few decades, I found that putting movements to songs and verses wasn't my strong suit as a new teacher. I could remember "I'm a Little Teapot" from when I was three years old, but that was about all. But I decided to continue to ponder the movements that express the essential nature of various activities. Gradually the children taught me, and I began to understand more and more. Now I can do movements appropriate for preschoolers to any song or verse, but I certainly felt awkward and self-conscious when I started! Seeing how imitative young children are and how much it is part of their nature to move along with the words helped me rediscover this childlike part of myself.
Start with fingerplays and movement verses from your own childhood. Perhaps you remember "The Wheels on the Bus" or "Six Little Ducks" or "Where Is Thumbkin?" The interaction with your child, her imitation of your movement, and the musical elements all unite in this kind of play that has delighted children for centuries and has great value for their development. Steiner points out how fingerplays and other tasks that develop dexterity in the fingers, such as knitting, help with brain development and later facility in clear thought. (8)
Circle games are also an ancient part of early childhood that delight young children. Modern ones like "Motorboat, motorboat, go so slow . . . Motorboat, motorboat, go so fast . . . Motorboat, motorboat, step on the gas!" are fun for their quality of changing speed and movement, but they lack the musical element. Older circle games such as "Ring Around the Roses" and "Sally Go 'Round the Sun" provide a picture in movement and song of the child's incarnating process. Jane Winslow Eliot, in her book on circle games, writes:
Watch when a child falls on the ground. The shrieks are out of proportion to the damage done. It is because the little one has been shocked out of an enveloping cloud into a sudden realization of the solidity of earth. The soul resents this. When you ritualize this happening in the garment of a game such as the lovely Ring Around the Roses, you lead the child lovingly, gently down to earth and she begins to enjoy the fun of it. Bit by bit the children don't mind staying. (9)
Ring games are joyful, sociable, and simple, yet they have all of the solemnity of a ritual in the way they are repeated over and over. Circle games contain rhythms that affect the beat of the children's pulses. They sometimes incorporate the ability to do tasks without self-consciousness, as in washing the clothes or brushing one's hair in "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush," while others deal with the interplay between the individual and the group, as in "The Farmer in the Dell" (a game that can be too intense for three-year-olds, who don't yet like being singled out and standing alone at the end). A child who does not want to be chosen should never be forced, for games that single out individual characters are too self-conscious for the very young child. The five-year-old, on the other hand, loves to be the farmer or the cheese and to be caught in the games "London Bridge" or "Oranges and Lemons." Younger children will enjoy these games if they can participate as part of the circle without being singled out before they are ready.
Steiner comments about the value of rhythmical games for young children:
For early childhood it is important to realize the value of children's songs as a means of education. They must make a pretty and rhythmical impression on the senses; the beauty of sound is to be valued more than the meaning of words. The more vivid the impression made on the ear, the better. Dancing movements in musical rhythm have a powerful influence in building up the physical organs and this should likewise not be undervalued. (10)
PENTATONIC MUSIC AND THE MOOD OF THE FIFTH"
The pentatonic scale has five notes in an octave instead of the seven we are used to in our normal diatonic scales. For example, a pentatonic scale built around A would have the notes D, E, G, A, and B, with no half steps (so the notes C and F are not included). If you look closely at children's songs and folk songs, you will see that many are written using this simpler scale.
Pentatonic music has the characteristic that it can go on and on without having an ending note that gives it a feeling of being finished (provided the song doesn't end on D, which changes the key from D pentatonic to G major). According to Steiner, these types of songs that are not grounded by a resolving note at the end are especially appropriate for the young child, who is not yet "firmly on the ground." Such music encourages the young child to stay in a dreamy state, so the greatest amount of energy is available for the healthy forming of the physical body. If this is done in early childhood, then the child's intellectual capacities will later wake up while he still maintains a strong contact with wonder, beauty, and creativity. In the Waldorf schools, pentatonic songs are used until the third grade, when the children have developed an inner emotional life that makes the major and minor scales more suitable for them.
The pentatonic scale was once used by most of humanity. The ancient Greeks used a pentatonic scale, and it was used in Europe until the Middle Ages. The Chinese scale is pentatonic, as was the ancient Egyptian. The quality of consciousness of ancient cultures was close to that of the young child—less earthbound, still on the threshold between two worlds. Pentatonic music and music in the "mood of the fifth" can have a healing influence on the young child by not rushing the child into fully incarnated earthbound consciousness and experience. (11)
A kinderharp (children's harp or lyre) is a small handheld harp that can be tuned to the pentatonic scale, which enables anyone to play beautiful music on it; all the notes sound harmonious together, and the quality of the sound is ideal for the young child. Such instruments, without sounding boxes, give a very pure experience of each note, without harmonic overtones. This simple, pure experience of the tones is ideal for young children and is recommended by Steiner over more complex instruments like the piano.
Kinderharps are lovely instruments for nap time and bedtime. Their music is very angelic and can really help calm a child and lull him or her to sleep. As children get older, they also like to pick out tunes on the kinderharp. Such instruments are used in Waldorf early childhood programs for the children to play (very carefully) and for the teacher to play at circle time, or at nap time in afternoon programs.
Kinderharps vary greatly in price and can be purchased from the companies listed at the end of this chapter. In addition, Choroi makes other pentatonic instruments such as a recorder (flute) made out of pear wood, and a klangspiel (xylophone or glockenspiel). Percussion instruments are not generally recommended for young children because a beat that is too strong can drive children too deeply into their physical bodies. This is in opposition to the fluid molding of their inner organs that occurs during the first seven years. Rock music has an especially strong beat and should be avoided for the young child.
I hope I've built a fairly convincing case for the benefits of simple, live music for the young child. We must remind ourselves again and again that the young child is all sense organ and monitor our children's environment for the quality of the sounds that surround and permeate them. In our culture not only do we also tend to be oblivious to the real nature of the young child, but unfortunately we also often substitute nonliving or mechanistic actions for living interactions. Thus instead of letting our babies sleep where they can sense our presence, we put on a recording of a heartbeat. Instead of holding and rocking them to sleep, we are told to turn on a machine that simulates a car going fifty-five miles per hour or to use the noise of a clothes dryer. Instead of reading to them and then letting them lie quietly until they fall asleep, we pop a CD of a professional reading a story into the CD player and beat a hasty retreat. Or instead of singing with our children and letting them help with what we are doing or play quietly near us while we work, we put on one of their DVDs to make them become passive and free us from them. Even though you may think that someone else singing children's songs is doing a much better job than you could possibly do and is providing a better experience, your child would not agree. Your child would always vote for you, because it is the "aliveness" that provides the real nourishment.
WHAT ABOUT MUSIC AND DANCE LESSONS?
Young children are naturally musical. Steiner describes it this way:
The musical element which lives in the human being from birth onwards and which expresses itself particularly in the child's third and fourth years in a gift for dancing is essentially an element of will, potent with life If people had the right agility, they would dance with little children, they would somehow join in the movement of all children. It is a fact that the individual is born into the world with the desire to bring his own body into musical rhythm, into musical relation with the world, and this inner musical capacity is most active in children in their third and fourth years. (12)
Is it, therefore, a good idea to start music and dance lessons at a young age? Unfortunately, most teachers of young children don't understand the principles of imitation and the importance of play and fantasy. They teach cognitively and put pressure on the child to learn a lesson or to do it right. Such a direct approach is far too self-conscious and can be stressful for the young child. While children need play that incorporates dance and music, most lessons are designed for older children, even though they may indicate that they are for four- or five-year-olds.
Elkind, in Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk, develops a strong case that any type of lessons places preschoolers at risk with no real gain. Waldorf teachers would agree that most lessons are inappropriate for the young child. If you do consider any kind of lessons for your nursery or kindergarten-age child—swimming, gymnastics, modern dance, or sports, for example—be sure to observe the classes before you decide whether or not to enroll your child. Does the instructor teach through imitation? Are the things that are asked and done clothed in fantasy? Or is the instruction appropriate for a much older child? Does your child really feel comfortable being away from you? Would the classes be enjoyable or stressful for your child? Would classes be taking away time from play or just being at home (especially important for children who are already in preschool programs or child care)? Don't sacrifice the current stage of your child's development for some future achievement. If it isn't fun, it is better left undone at this age!
Steiner made two recommendations that aren't going to win him any points with parents today. He recommended that children avoid ballet and soccer. In ballet the fixed and artificial positions are foreign to the fluid and changing nature of the growing child. Ballet also affects the vital energy involved in growth and reproduction, as evidenced by the high rate of menstrual irregularities in professional ballerinas. The discipline and fixed positions of ballet are very different from the rhythmical movement that Steiner recommends when dancing with children.
In soccer the exclusive use of the feet and the head in hitting the ball puts undue emphasis on the extremities at a time when the grade-school child is centered in the middle sphere, the heart/lung area. Studies of the long-term effects of playing soccer following the work of neurologist Barry Jordan also found that Dutch professional soccer forwards and defensive players (those most likely to "head" the ball) were more likely to have subtle problems in everything from memory to visual perception than were midfielders and goalies. They had more concussions as well. Jordan also found that professional boxers who carried a specific gene linked to early onset Alzheimer's disease were more likely to suffer cognitive impairment than non-boxers, and he is also checking to see whether the same is true with soccer players. (13) Although your child won't experience the same kind of battering that professional soccer players endure, one can't totally discount Steiner's observation that such use of the head is not healthy for the growing child.
Returning from the soccer fields to the realm of music, unless your child is a musical genius who clearly needs a tutor at age three, there are many reasons to wait until elementary school before beginning music instruction. Unfortunately, most people who work with preschool children don't know how to teach from imitation and start by teaching how to read music. Even the idea of having to learn a lesson through imitation is too direct an approach for a young child. While the Suzuki method does work through the principle of imitation, the emphasis on recorded music is not consonant with the young child's need to hear live music and simple tunes. Performing at young ages, an integral part of Suzuki, introduces pressure and self-consciousness into the dreamlike world of early childhood. In the Waldorf schools children don't present anything before an audience until they are in the grades, when the classes share their poems, plays, songs, and recorder music as a class group with other students and with the parents at school assemblies.
Playing the wooden recorder is begun in the first grade in Waldorf schools, but the children learn strictly through imitating their teacher. Reading music isn't introduced until the third grade, when the child has reached a certain level of maturity and eye-hand coordination and is ready for the full range of musical experience, including the introduction of stringed instruments.
All parents want their children to develop according to their full potential, but an understanding of the inner development of the child leads to the realization that certain subjects and skills are best introduced at the age that corresponds to the child's inner ripeness for them. The desire to "do more sooner," which is a symptom of our spiritual materialism, can lead to skipping steps and hastening a child's development in one sphere without realizing the possible ramifications in another. These comments are not meant to provide a list of "Thou shalt not's," but rather are intended to encourage you to trust your own knowledge and your own heart to intuit what is best for your child. If parents do this, they won't subject their children to the "super baby syndrome" at the expense of the important years of early childhood.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Fingerplays, Nursery Rhymes, and Circle Games
- Dancing as We Sing, edited by Nancy Foster (Waldorf Early Childhood Association).
- The Eentsy Weentsy Spider: Finger Plays and Action Rhymes, by Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson (William Morrow and Co.).
- Let Us Form a Ring, edited by Nancy Foster (Waldorf Early Childhood Association).
- "Naturally You Can Sing." Various titles by Mary Schunemann, with accompanying CDs. Available from www.naturallyyoucansing.com.
- The Original Mother Goose, by Blanche Fisher Wright (Running Press).
- Singing Games for Families, Schools and Communities, by Anna Rainville (Rudolf Steiner College Press). Book with CD available from the Book Store at www.steinercollege.edu.
Waldorf-Inspired Song Books
- Clump-a-Dump and Snickle-Snack, by Johanne Russ (Mercury Press). Pentatonic children's songs. Available from www.waldorfbooks.com.
- Gateways and other volumes by Margret Meyerkort (Wynstones Press). Six booklets of songs and stories collected from the Waldorf kindergarten teachers in Great Britain.
- Pentatonic Songs, by Elisabeth Lebret (Waldorf School Association of Toronto). Contains many songs for the seasons and holidays. Available from www.steinercollege.edu.
- Quintenlieder: Music for Young Children in the Mood of the Fifth, by Julius Knierim (Rudolf Steiner College Press). Available from www.steinercollege.edu.
- Seven Times the Sun: Guiding Your Child Through the Rhythms of the Day, by Shea Darian (Gilead Press). Book with many songs plus a CD. Available from www.gileadpress.com.
Other Selections
- American Folksongs for Children, by Ruth Crawford Seeger (Doubleday).
- The Lullaby Treasury: Cradle Songs from Around the World, by Mathilde Polee and Petra Rosenberg (Floris).
Pentatonic Instruments (Kinderharps and Recorders)
- Bella Luna Toys. Offers the most complete selection, plus a DVD on how to tune your kinderharp. At www.bellalunatoys.com.
NOTES
- Julius Knierim, Quintenlieder: Music for Young Children in the Mood of the Fifth, trans. Karen and Peter Klaveness (Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press, 2002).
- Rudolf Steiner, Practical Course for Teachers (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1937), pp. 18-19.
- Vadim Prokhorov, "Will Piano Lessons Make My Child Smarter?" Parade Magazine, June 14, 1999, p. 15.
- Quoted in Pamela G. Kripke, "Get the Beat, Baby," American Baby, February 1998, p. 51.
- Rudolf Steiner, The Kingdom of Childhood (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1974), p. 110.
- Knierim, Quintenlieder.
- Eileen Hutchins, "The Value of Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes," in Child and Man Extracts (Sussex, UK: Steiner Schools Fellowship, n.d.), p. 44.
- Rosemary Gebert, in a lecture delivered at the Waldorf Institute, Southfield, Ml, October 1981,
- Jane Winslow Eliot, From Ring Around the Roses to London Bridge Is Falling Down: Some Incarnating Games (New York: Rudolf Steiner School Press, 1982), p. 1.
- Steiner, The Education of the Child, p. 29.
- Music in the "mood of the fifth" is a special kind of pentatonic music that is discussed in Julius Knierim's Quintenlieder. Readers interested in the healing and other esoteric aspects of music are referred to Rudolf Steiner's work The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1983).
- Rudolf Steiner, course of lectures delivered at the foundation of the Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany, August 21 to September 5, 1919, and quoted in Grunelius, Early Childhood Education, p. 45.
- "Head Trauma Questions," USA Weekend, January 3, 1999.
Bibliography - You Are Your Child's First Teacher